Much has been made of several comments Dave Gettleman has made regarding Cam Newton and “pocket passers”. Could the Panthers new GM really be considering moving forward without one of the league’s most dynamic young playmakers?

I don't like to do this but I am going to begin this article with a disclaimer. Due in part to another poor start by the Carolina Panthers and the fear of yet another looming rebuild tension has been a little high around here lately. I want it to be very clear that I am in no way saying that the following scenario is how I want the future to play out for the Panthers. As far as I can tell not a single member of the staff here at CSR wants this. I love Cam Newton as our quarterback and want nothing more than for this offense to be built around him. However there is enough circumstantial evidence to support the notion that Dave Gettleman could be planning to take this team in a new direction and therefore a little Devil's advocacy is in order.

"10 of the 12 teams in the playoffs this year had true pocket passers. At the end of the day the quarterback has to make plays from the pocket. I think the read option is an option exactly what you called it. But at the end of the day your quarterback has got to make plays from the pocket and if he can't you're going to struggle." - Dave Gettleman

Dave Gettleman came to the Carolina Panthers by-way-of the New York Giants but has been a part of 13 playoff teams 6 Super Bowl teams and 3 Super Bowl winners in his 30-plus year career. When you look at those Super Bowl teams one thing definitely sticks out: they were all led by more traditional pocket-passers than Cam Newton; namely Jim Kelly John Elway Kerry Collins and Eli Manning.

Now of course we do not know how much if anything Gettleman had to do with who played quarterback on those teams especially in Buffalo and Denver as his capacity at the time was only as a regional scout. However it is a very human thing to stick with what we know. For instance I can not think of a single example of a defensive coach who has spent his entire career using a 3-4 scheme changing gears in his twilight years to begin using a 4-3. That being said Gettleman's comment about pocket-passers is hard to completely dismiss. Many do but it makes me wonder if they are rejecting out of hand an inconvenient truth in favor of a pretty lie.